The 2015 Fintech Finance 35: Justin Brownhill and Neil DeSena, SenaHill Partners

< The 2015 Fintech Finance 35

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Justin Brownhill & Neil DeSena
Managing Partners
SenaHill Partners

“We put our money where our mouth is,” one of SenaHill Partners’ mantras, could apply to any number of firms at various stages of the fintech investing cycle. What distinguishes New York–based SenaHill is its hands-on, merchant-bank-like team of “founders and operators of technology businesses,” says Justin Brownhill, 44, the “Hill” of SenaHill. “We are able to see things a little differently” when identifying disruptive innovators and imparting essential been-there-done-that wisdom. A former Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette banker; an investor in and executive of the Lava Trading platform, which Citigroup acquired in 2004; and CEO of the Receivables Exchange from 2007 to 2012, Brownhill formed SenaHill in early 2013 with Neil DeSena. “We have been on both sides of the table,” says DeSena, 51, who started the REDI institutional trading business at Spear, Leeds & Kellogg in 1992 and, after Goldman Sachs Group bought the execution and clearing brokerage in 2000, was global head of REDI Products through 2006, before pursuing investment opportunities on his own. Managing partners Brownhill and DeSena, along with partners Gregg Sharenow (ex-COO of National Discount Brokers, acquired in 2000 by Deutsche Bank) and Kyle Zasky (co-founder of EdgeTrade, part of KCG Holdings since 2008), represent “multigenerational experience” that compounds the value of the checks they write, which tend to be less than $1 million, Brownhill says. The portfolio includes AIREX Market, a data repository that claims to be democratizing distribution of financial reports and apps; WealthForge, a private investment infrastructure that will power the SenaHill Portal, a soon-to-launch online listing of co-investment opportunities; capital markets blockchain developer Symbiont; and recruitment site untapt. DeSena is excited by the blockchain, and not just because it is “the new black. It will attract more people into financial technology and help the industry solve its talent issues.”

The 2015 Fintech Finance 35

1. James Robinson III & James Robinson IV RRE Ventures 2. Jane Gladstone Evercore Partners 3. Matthew Harris Bain Capital Ventures 4. Steven McLaughlin Financial Technology Partners 5. Jonathan Korngold General Atlantic

6. Richard Garman & Brad Bernstein FTV Capital 7. Amy Nauiokas & Sean Park Anthemis Group 8. Thomas Jessop Goldman Sachs Group 9. Meyer (Micky) Malka Ribbit Capital 10. Hans Morris Nyca Partners

11. Maria Gotsch Partnership Fund for New York City 12. Marc Andreessen Andreessen Horowitz 13. Barry Silbert Digital Currency Group 14. Jay Reinemann Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria 15. Mariano Belinky Santander InnoVentures

16. François Robinet AXA Strategic Ventures 17. Vanessa Colella Citi Ventures 18. Alan Freudenstein & Gregory Grimaldi Credit Suisse NEXT Fund 19. Justin Brownhill & Neil DeSena SenaHill Partners 20. Rodger Voorhies Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

21. Michael Schlein Accion International 22. Kenneth Marlin Marlin & Associates 23. Rumi Morales CME Ventures 24. Mark Beeston Illuminate Financial Management 25. Vladislav Solodkiy Life.SREDA

26. Fabian Vandenreydt Innotribe SWIFT 27. Derek White Barclays 28. Alex Batlin UBS 29. Jeffrey Greenberg & Vincenzo La Ruffa Aquiline Capital Partners 30. P. Howard Edelstein REDI Holdings

31. Nektarios Liolios Startupbootcamp FinTech 32. Roy Bahat Bloomberg Beta 33. Andrew McCormack Valar Ventures 34. Lawrence Wintermeyer Innovate Finance 35. Janos Barberis FinTech Hong Kong